A Safe Explosive Site Plan for Suborbital RLVs

Abstract

Developing an appropriate explosive site plan for a potential spaceport is one part of ensuring safe operations for RLVs. One of the most important aspects in determining if a potential Aerospaceport can become licensed is the ability to provide sufficient safety to the general public. To reduce the likelihood of potential casualties from a launch or operations anomaly it is critical that the explosive site plan be developed for a RLV mission appropriately. To date, the authors have completed designs or orbital and suborbital launch sites as well as detailed analysis of mission profiles for Suborbital RLVs to support the development of an application for an FAA Launch Site Operators License for Cecil Field Spaceport in Jacksonville, FL. With slight modification and an FAA Launch Site Operators License many existing airports around the country are capable of supporting the current generation of Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs). The paper will identify and evaluate factors that influence the layout of commodities in the Explosive Site Plan that can minimize the impact of RLV processing to other users of and Aerospaceport and hasten the process of obtaining FAA approval for a licensed spaceport. For many years spaceport development in the United States was controlled exclusively by the Federal Government. In the 1990’s several commercial spaceports were developed to support commercial orbital launches. At that time most of these commercial spaceports were based on a cooperative State-Federal system. They were still located on Federal property, such as the California Spaceport located on Vandenberg Air Force Base. Spaceport development has continued to evolve and is now a mix of approaches, including Aerospaceports. An Aerospaceport, as considered in this paper, is a traditional airport that has also become licensed to support space launch operations. The current generation of Aerospaceports is typically an existing shared military or general aviation airport that has obtained a FAA licensing to operate a launch site in support of suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs). Aerospaceports are expected to evolve to support a wide range of missions including orbital space access for both passengers and cargo. As of writing this paper there are six commercial spaceports with an active license. Of these spaceports three evolved from Federal ranges and are hybrid State-Federal spaceports, two evolved from traditional airfields and are “Aerospaceports”, and one is an independent spaceport built on a new site from the ground up. The two currently FAA / AST licensed Aerospaceports include Oklahoma Spaceport, licensed to the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority, and Mojave Air & Space Port, licensed to The East Kern Airport District. There are several other proposed Aerospaceports in the US. These include the Cecil Field Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, for which the authors have provided support planning, analysis, and development of the Environmental Assessment and FAA Launch Site Operators License Application. Through the development of these spaceports, it is apparent that the development of the Exposive Site Plan is critical to an efficient Aerospaceport and successful license approval. Proper planning of the Explosive site plan enables reasonable facility layout, efficient RLV operations, and limits impacts to other aviation customers.